From southern Laos to Cambodia

As mentioned in the last blog, we ended up back in Laos and specifically in Pakse. The city itself doesn't have much to offer, but it is beautifully situated on the Mekong and serves as a starting point for trips to Wat Phou (a Khmer-Hindu temple complex that serves as a preparation for Angkor Wat) or the Bolaven Plateau (a highland area with many waterfalls and coffee plantations). On these trips and during dinner, we kept running into the same people.

From Pakse, we traveled to the 4000 Islands (near the border with Cambodia), which are not located in the sea but in the Mekong River. :-) There, we enjoyed beautiful sunsets, explored 'our' two islands by bike (which was quite adventurous on certain sections, and Martin's first bike didn't survive the first 100 meters!) and spent some time relaxing. It was also Zora's first opportunity to see the endangered Irrawaddy dolphins, although only briefly because they mostly stayed in Cambodian territory (dolphins don't need a visa) and our boat driver was not allowed to cross the border.

Our next stop was in Kratie, which is already in Cambodia. The journey there was quite tiring because as a tourist in Southeast Asia, you often only have one option (no matter which agency you book with, in the end, everyone ends up in the same bus/boat and the price is the same everywhere). So, we took a boat from the island at 08:00 and reached the mainland bus terminal at 08:15, then had to wait until 10:00 for the bus (why the boat didn't leave at 09:30, nobody knows...), then 15 minutes to the border, waited another hour for the visa, and finally, 15 minutes before reaching our destination, there was a half-hour lunch break. A 4-hour ride turned into a full-day program! :-)))

Because the dolphins in Kratie can't simply run away across the border, there was another one-hour boat trip to see the dolphins, which we were able to spot throughout the whole time. Zora was very happy observing the beautiful animals. Unfortunately, we can't share this experience with you very well because the dolphins like to hide under the water surface before the camera can capture them.

In Phnom Penh, we mainly focused on the darkest chapter in Cambodia's history (the mass murder by the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot) and visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. During our trip, we also read a very disturbing and depressing but highly recommended book by Vaddey Ratner: 'In the Shadow of the Banyan'.

Currently, we are in Kampot, enjoying the delicious food and the legendary pepper! Today, we visited a pepper plantation and ate delicious crabs with a green pepper sauce at the crab market in Kep. You can only eat the green pepper when it's very fresh, so unfortunately, you'll have to come to Kampot yourself to try it.

Tomorrow, we are going to Koh Rong Samloem, where we want to soak up the sun and recharge for 4 days before heading back to Switzerland via Siem Reap and Bangkok, which feels too soon.